Kathmandu, June 2. A meeting between foreign ministers of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) members has been held. The meeting, held on Tuesday was chaired by the Minister of External Affairs of India, S. Jaishankar.

The meeting described the covid pandemic as one of the serious issues around the world, adding that it has brought forward the importance of multilateralism. They also discussed upon the intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines.

The joint statement released said, “The Ministers expressed grave concern over the continuing public health, societal and economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic globally.”

It also added “The Ministers reaffirmed the need to use all relevant measures during the pandemic, including supporting ongoing consideration in the WTO [World Trade Organization] on a COVID-19 vaccine intellectual property rights waiver and the use of flexibilities of the TRIPS [Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] agreement and the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health”.

The participants included Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Brazilian Foreign Minister Carlos Alberto Franco and South African Foreign Minister Grace Naledi Pandor, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi along with Indian Minister of External Affairs of India, S. Jaishankar.

The ministers also discussed upon issues such as terrorism, cyber crime and money laundering.

Chinese president-Indian PM met on BRICS meeting last year after stand-off at border

The 12th BRICS Summit started virtually from November 17. President Xi Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attended the meeting virtually.

It was said to be their first virtual meeting after the stand-off at the border.

Before that, Modi and Xi last shared a common platform when Saudi Arabia organized a virtual gathering of the G-20 members on March 29 last year.